Just some of what can be found and kept at Crater of Diamonds State Park.
Copyright : Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism.

If you have a strong interest in gemstones you would probably love to have an opportunity to mine for diamonds yourself. Here's where you can go.

Crater of Diamonds State Park

For a fee of a few dollars you can enter the mine, search all day and keep any diamonds that you find. In addition to diamonds, you might find one of the many colorful gemstones that occur naturally there. These include: amethyst, agate, jasper, garnet, peridot, hematite and many others. Crater of Diamonds State Park is a 911-acre (369 ha) Arkansas state park in Pike County, Arkansas, in the United States.

The Crater of Diamonds volcanic pipe is part of a 95-million-year-old eroded volcano. The deeply sourced lamproite magma, from the upper mantle, brought the diamonds to the surface. The diamonds had crystallized in the cratonic root of the continent long before and were sampled by the magma as it rose to the surface.

Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only diamond-producing site in the world where the visitors can search for diamonds. And the policy here is "finders, keepers," meaning the diamonds you find are yours to keep.

To hunt for diamonds you will search atop a 37 1/2-acre plowed field, the eroded surface of an ancient, gem-bearing volcanic crater. The park staff provides free identification and certification of diamonds found there.

Park visitors find more than 600 diamonds each year of all colors and grades. Over 29,000 diamonds have been found in the crater since it became a state park. Visitors may keep any gemstone they find regardless of its value.

In addition to diamonds, visitors may find semi-precious gems such as amethyst, agate, and jasper or approximately 40 other minerals such as garnet, phlogopite, quartz, baryte, and calcite.